Many medical procedures in use today require a relatively small sample of blood, in the range of 5-50 .mu.L. It is more cost effective and less traumatic to the patient to obtain such a sample by lancing or piercing the skin at a selected location, such as the finger, to enable the collection of 1 or 2 drops of blood, than by using a phlebotomist to draw a tube of venous blood. With the advent of home use tests such as self monitoring of blood glucose, there is a requirement for a simple procedure which can be performed in any setting by a person needing to test.
Lancets in conventional use generally have a rigid body and a sterile needle which protrudes from one end. The lancet may be used to pierce the skin, thereby enabling the collection of a blood sample from the opening created. The blood is transferred to a test device or collection device. Blood is most commonly taken from the fingertips, where the supply is generally excellent. However, the nerve density in this region causes significant pain in many patients. Sampling of alternate site, such as earlobes and limbs, is sometimes practiced to access sites which are less sensitive. These sites are also less likely to provide excellent blood samples and make blood transfer directly to test devices difficult.
Repeated lancing in limited surface areas (such as fingertips) results in callous formation. This leads to increased difficulty in drawing blood and increased pain.
To reduce the anxiety of piercing the skin and the associated pain, many spring loaded devices have been developed. The following two patents are representative of the devices which were developed in the 1980s for use with home diagnostic test products.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,503,856, Cornell et al., describes a spring loaded lancet injector. The reusable device interfaces with a disposable lancet. The lancet holder may be latched in a retracted position. When the user contacts a release, a spring causes the lancet to pierce the skin at high speed and then retract. The speed is important to reduce the pain associated with the puncture.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,517,978, Levin et al., describes a blood sampling instrument. This device, which is also spring loaded, uses a standard disposable lancet. The design enables easy and accurate positioning against a fingertip so the impact site can be readily determined. After the lancet pierces the skin, a bounce back spring retracts the lancet to a safe position within the device.
In institutional settings, it is often desirable to collect the sample from the patient and then introduce the sample to a test device in a controlled fashion. Some blood glucose monitoring systems, for example, require that the blood sample be applied to a test device which is in contact with a test instrument. In such situations, bringing the finger of a patient directly to the test device poses some risk of contamination from blood of a previous patient. With such systems, particularly in hospital settings, it is common to lance a patient, collect a sample in a micropipette via capillary action and then deliver the sample from the pipette to the test device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,920,977, Haynes, describes a blood collection assembly with lancet and microcollection tube. This device incorporates a lancet and collection container in a single device. The lancing and collecting are two separate activities, but the device is a convenient single disposable unit for situations when sample collection prior to use is desirable. Similar devices are disclosed in Sarrine, U.S. Pat. No. 4,360,016, and O'Brien, U.S. Pat. No. 4,9249,879.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,850,973 and 4,858,607, Jordan et al., disclose a combination device which may be alternatively used as a syringe-type injection device and a lancing device with disposable solid needle lancet, depending on configuration.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,318,584, Lange et al., describes a blood lancet device for withdrawing blood for diagnostic purposes. This invention uses a rotary/sliding transmission system to reduce the pain of lancing. The puncture depth is easily and precisely adjustable by the user.
Suzuki et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,368,047, Dombrowski, U.S. Pat. No. 4,654,513 and Ishibashi et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,320,607, all describe suction-type blood samplers. These devices develop suction between the lancing site and the end of the device when the lancet holding mechanism withdraws after piercing the skin. A flexible gasket around the end of the device helps seal the end around the puncture site until adequate sample is drawn from the puncture site or the user pulls back on the device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,637,403, Garcia et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,217,480, Haber et al, disclose combination lancing and blood collection devices which use a diaphragm to create a vacuum over the wound site.
International Application Publication Number WO 95/10223, Erickson et al, describes a means of collecting and measuring body fluids. This system uses a disposable lancing and suction device with a spacer member which compresses the skin around the lance/needle.
Single use devices have also been developed for single use tests, i.e. home cholesterol testing, and for institutional use to eliminate cross-patient contamination multi-patient use. Crossman et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,869,249, and Swierczek, U.S. Pat. No. 5,402,798, also disclose disposable, single use lancing devices.
Even with the many improvements which have been made, the pain associated with lancing remains a significant issue for many patients. The need for blood sampling and the fear of the associated pain is also a major obstacle for the millions of diagnosed diabetics, who do not adequately monitor their blood glucose due to the pain involved. Moreover, lancing to obtain a blood sample for other diagnostic applications is becoming more commonplace, and a less painful, minimally invasive device is needed to enhance those applications and make those technologies more acceptable.
An object of the present invention is to provide a device and a method for obtaining a sample of bodily fluid through the skin which is virtually pain free and minimally invasive.
Another object of this invention is to provide a method which can result in a sample of either blood or interstitial fluid, depending on the sample site and the penetration depth utilized. While there are no commercially available devices utilizing interstitial fluid (ISF) at this time, there are active efforts to establish the correlation of analytes, such as glucose, in ISF compared to whole blood. If ISF could be readily obtained and correlation is established, ISF may be preferable as a sample since there is no interference of red blood cells or hematocrit adjustment required.
Another object of this invention is to provide a method which can draw a small but adjustable sample. i.e. 3 .mu.L for one test device and 8 .mu.L for another test device, as appropriate.
Another object of this invention is to provide a method by which the drawn sample is collected and may be easily presented to a testing device, regardless of the location of the sample site on the body. This approach helps with infection control in that multiple patients are not brought in contact with a single test instrument; only the sampling device with a disposable patient-contact portion is brought to the test instrument. Alternatively, the disposable portion of a test device may be physically coupled with the sampler so the sample can be brought directly into the test device during sampling. The test device may then be read in a test instrument if appropriate or the testing system can be integrated into the sampler and the test device can provide direct results displayed for the patient.
It is a further object of the invention is to provide a device for minimally invasive sampling comprising a reusable sampler and disposable sample collection.